And so ends the sentencing discussion.

In my view, sentencing should be harsh. I support the 65 year sentences for the Bankstown rapists. Forget reabilitation, we want these persons removed from society. I would also support capital punishment for heinous murder, such as Annity Coby and Mrs Morse, plus others.

When the birth control pill came out it was supposed to stop abortions and even now we have the morning after pill, so why are ther eso many abortions?

I can symphathise to some extent with runner as i have serious reservations about late term abortions. We now have medical technology that can save many premature born babies, so should that be a hallmark as to when to cease abortions. At what point do we change from abortion OK to murder?

Cathholics are not allowed to take the pill, so abortion is the next best option.

< Ludwig, as I said in my post, each case has to be evaluated. >

Rehctub, you wrote::

<< this should only apply to cold murder, where there is no circumstantial situations. >>

But there are circumstances, reasons, other considerations, etc, for every murder.

There is no such thing as ‘cold murder’ that is devoid of any ‘circumstantial situations’.

Most convicted murderers are sentenced to
"life" imprisonment - but if we check the
crime stats we'll find that more than half of
them serve much less than the time they were
given. The issue of sentencing is a complicated
one and I'm not sure where the answer lies.
Homicide is rarely premeditated. It usually
happens in the heat of the moment - in such
situations as family arguments or bungled robberies -
when the perpetrator is least likely to think
about the possible consequences. In the few cases
where murder is premeditated, the offender
obviously doesn't expect to get caught or punished
anyway.

I'm not sure that longer sentences would act as a
deterrent. To me it smacks of retribution -
its about society's revenge on a person who takes
another's life. Whether this retribution is justified
is not a matter of measureable facts - it is a moral
judgement - and I guess its for each of us to make.

I personally consider human life sacred and I know that
if a member of my family was killed - I'd want the
perpetrator locked up for life and the key thrown away.

As usual runner gets it wrong.

Since the Enlightenment, when religious leaders started to lose their control over the development of intelligent ideas, the rate of violence has decreased substantially.

The facts can be checked in, The Better Angels of our Nature, by Prof. Steven Pinker of Harvard.

Runner would have society revert to backyard abortions with the lack of safety that entails for women who are often already mothers.